The government has made it mandatory for rice millers to display their name, location, production date, price, and variety prominently on all rice sacks prior to distribution.

Such information must be printed from April 14, according to an order issued by the Ministry of Food on Wednesday.

Md. Ismail Hossain, secretary of the ministry, told UNB that after visiting some of the rice-producing districts of the country recently, the ministry officials have confirmed that rice produced from the same variety of rice is being sold in the market under different names and prices.

“Millers, wholesalers, and retailers are blaming each other when the price of rice goes up to unreasonable levels or increases suddenly. Due to this, consumers are facing difficulty in buying desired varieties of paddy and rice at fair prices and in many cases they are suffering financially,” he said.

In order to overcome this situation, to keep the market price of rice at a stable and reasonable level, and to facilitate the rice market monitoring instructions have been given, he said.

According to the circular, the rice-producing millers must mention the name of the producing mill, district and Upazila, date of production, mill gate price and variety of paddy/rice on the sacks of rice, and net weight before supplying rice from the warehouse to the market.

The information mentioned on the sack/bag cannot be written by hand, rather it must be printed.

All types of rice sacks/packets (50/25/10/5/2/1 kg etc.) supplied from all rice-producing mill owners (auto/husking) should have the above information printed on them.

The same guidelines should be followed in the case of any corporate company. In this case, the company can specify the maximum retail price along with the mill gate price.

As per instruction of this circular, all District Administrators/ Upazila Nirbahi/Executive Officers/ Regional Food Controllers/ District Food Controllers/ Upazila Food Controllers. Food inspectors will confirm this during the inspection.

In case of violation, necessary measures will be taken as per Section 6 and Section 7 of the Food Production, Storage, Transfer, Transport, Supply, Distribution, Marketing (Prevention of Harmful Activities) Act-2023.